Snidget with a Broken Wing
by DuchessKenobi
Summary: Cedric Diggory had a little sister but she never went to Hogwarts. This is why...
1. Chapter 1

Just a tiny little intro. i promise the chapters will be longer from here out. I used to eat sleep and breathe HP fanfiction, especially between the release of books 4&5\. Hadn't written any in years until about year and a half ago when i started this piece for NanoWriMo. Now that i'm posting stories again thought I'd dig it out and see if i could get some feedback on it. Hope you like!

* * *

As she stepped onto the platform she wished again that he could be here. Just a few months short of her 38th birthday and it still didn't seem possible that she had spent more years without her brother than with him. He was still with her though, every time she flew, every time she scored a goal, and today. It was really the memory of his courage that brought her here. She couldn't have come so far without him.

"This is for you, Ced." She whispered.

She waited for the smattering of applause to die down and then she began. "Hello, my name is Moira Diggory and I would like to thank the Squib Awareness Society for inviting me here this evening. For thousands of years we Squibs have lived hiding from or trying to blend in to a world that didn't understand us and didn't want us around. But now is the time for us to step forward and take our place. I would like to share with you all my story. I will tell you of some very sad and confusing times but I do not want your pity. I only hope that my journey will encourage someone else like me to reach the stars and be the best that they can be while still being proud of and true to what you are. I am a Squib but I can fly!"


	2. Christmas 1983

In a world recently free of He Who Must Not Be Named there are other things to worry about and sometimes you just let go of worry and let it be Christmas.

* * *

"Wake up, Ced! It's Christmas!" Five year old Moira bounced up and down on her brother's bed. It was still dark outside the windows but it was surely Christmas morning and though the little girl had tried not to look under the tree as she tiptoed across the sitting room from her room on one side of the house to her big brother Cedric's room on the other side, she couldn't help but notice the matching long thin packages poking out from amid the pile of other gifts. "Ced! Father Christmas was here!"

The six year old boy sat bolt upright and smiled. "Do you think he got our letter?"

Moira could only nod and grin. She grabbed his arm and pulled. "Come on!" And they both tumbled to the floor laughing.

"Hush, we'll wake Mum and Dad." Cedric shushed her placing a hand over her giggling mouth.

She pushed his hand away. "Oh you know they'll want to see what Father Christmas brought us too."

The little girl jumped up and ran for the sitting room stopping just short of the tree to gaze at the magical lights that had been lit since her earlier tiptoe through the room. Cedric raced up behind her, "Oh." he gasped also struck still and silent by the beauty of it.

Then the flashbulb burst and set them both to blinking the stars out of their eyes.

"Happy Christmas!" Mum cried rushing over to give them both a hug and a kiss.

Dad primed the camera again and snapped a picture of the three of them. Moira knew that the pictures, when they were developed would go into one of the big family albums. There were pictures there that documented she and Cedric's first steps, and the funny faces they made trying their first foods. All the Birthdays and Easters and Christmases and the time when Cedric had accidentally levitated the cat, and when he had managed to magically erase where they had scribbled all over the wall with their mother's red nail potion.

Moira hadn't really shown any magical ability just yet but it would happen. She was just a late bloomer. She was still very young. Dad said she hadn't done anything magical yet because she hadn't needed to. She had Ced around to take care of her and nothing bad had really ever happened. Not since He Who Must Not Be Named had been destroyed by Harry Potter a couple of years ago and before that Moira was just a baby.

But it wasn't the time to worry about that now. Not that Moira did worry about things like that even though her parents thought about it often. Wondering. This was Christmas! And as soon as Mum let her two children go from their hug they raced to the tree.

"Father Christmas certainly must have heard what good children you were this year." Mrs. Diggory smiled. "Which one are you going to open first?"

Moira grinned at her brother who was still surveying the pile and then reached deep under the other boxes for the two thin packages she had noticed before. Easing them out carefully she checked the names written on them and placed one into his hands.

Cedric's face lit up like the sun that was just beginning to filter into the sitting room windows. "We'll open them together!"

Moira nodded. "3. 2. 1 Go!"

They both ripped off the paper and Moira squealed in delight while Cedric "Woo Hoo"ed, threw his leg over the broom handle and began to skip around the room.

"Be careful now!" Mum rushed forward to stop them from getting off the ground.

Dad snapped another picture for the album. "Oh leave them be. It's Christmas."

The first time Moira's broom lifted and her toes left the ground she knew she would never be happy again unless she was in the air.

"See." Amos Diggory wiped a tear from his eyes so that he could sight through the camera for another picture. "Our girl's going to be okay." He hadn't been able to admit to his wife nor she to him how worried they had been that their little girl might be a squib. Non magical children were occasionally born even in the most powerful magical families but it wasn't something that was talked about. And what could life be like in the magical world for a child who couldn't perform the simplest of charms. But they didn't have to worry. Their Moira could ride a broom. She was already keeping her balance while she skimmed a few inches over the hardwood floor, a look of determination on her peeked little face.

None of them were paying attention when a loud thud announced that Cedric had had his first crash into the wall next to the fireplace.

"Ow." He rubbed his chin that had gotten the worst of the bump and then smiled when he saw that the rest of the family was laughing. "Guess we need some practice."

"Oh can we Mum?" Moira zipped her broom over to where her parents were standing and made a perfect stop before jumping off and hugging them both. "Can we go out and practice on the moor?"

"Not until after breakfast." Mum laughed. "and then you have a whole pile of other presents to open."

"All right." The little girl beamed and ran over to her brother. "Come on let's eat fast and then we can open that other stuff and go and play!"

* * *

Does anyone know what Mrs. Diggory's name is? I don't think it was ever mentioned in the books.


	3. to Lovegood's

confession: my one big fudge in this story (not cornelius) is Luna's age at the time of her mother's death. I am perfectly aware that Luna in the books tells Harry that she was 9 when her mother died. In this story it made more sense for her mother to die much earlier. so don't sue me. I will try to stay as close to canon as possible for all other details. thank you for your understanding :)

* * *

"I wish we could fly to Mr. Lovegood's." Moira whispered to her brother as they walked a few steps behind their mother across the moor from their own home toward the village of Ottery St. Catchpole.

"So do I." He whispered back to her.

Their mother looked back over her shoulder impatiently, "Come along. We're going too near to the village for the two of you to fly. We can't risk a muggle seeing you on your brooms now can we?" She turned to face forward again and continued at a brisk trot.

Moira hurried ahead and slipped her hand into her mother's. "Why must we go to Mr. Lovegood's house anyway?"

Her mother stopped, sighed and turned to smile at her daughter. Then she beckoned Cedric to come and join them. "You both want to go to Hogwarts some day and learn how to become a proper Witch and Wizard, don't you?"

"Yes, of course," cried Cedric and Moira nodded furiously.

"Well there are a few things you need to learn first, before you turn eleven, that is. Reading and Writing and Latin and Maths and many other skills. I've tried to teach you a bit but Mr. Lovegood is a Ravenclaw so he can teach you much better than I ever could."

Moira thought her mother looked sad just then, like she was sorry that she couldn't teach them herself. But Cedric burst in, "Dad says Mr. Lovegood is a bit off his rocker."

"Well," their mother attempted to explain. "He does have some peculiar ideas about some things but he does prize learning very highly and I want you to be very polite to he and his daughter while you're studying with them."

"He has a little girl?" Moira brightened. There were other young wizards in the area but she hadn't had much of an opportunity to play with any other witches her own age. "Is she my age?"

"I believe she's a little younger than you are, Love." Mum pushed a strand of Moira's hair back behind her ear. "But her mother died and I'm sure she would fancy having another girl around the house. That's another reason for sending the two of you to study with Mr. Lovegood. You can be good friends with little Luna."

Moira nodded again and smiled and turned back the way they were headed before Mum had stopped to speak to them. "Well what are we waiting for. Let's go and meet them."

Cedric grumbled and held back for a moment while his mother and sister plunged ahead. "But Mum I already know how to read. Just yesterday I read you the whole cover of Rabbity Babbity."

Mum smiled and turned back to face him. "You repeated back to me what you had memorized from me reading it to you so often. But you still need to learn many other things before you can go to Hogwarts."

"Can't I be a Quidditch player without going to school?"

Moira was also interested to hear the answer to this ever so important question. Playing Quidditch was the most important thing either of them could think of. Even more important than Dad's job at the Ministry of Magic in the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures office.

"I suppose you could if one of the teams heard of you way out here in the country. But if you go to Hogwarts and play on one of the house teams think of all the experience you could get and I've heard that the league pays close attention to how hard you work in your other studies..."

"I'm a hard worker, Mum!" Cedric pressed on forward in the direction that his mother had been leading them before.

She laughed taking one of her children's hands in each of her own and proceeded down the path.


	4. teaching arangement

The first thing Moira noticed as they neared the Lovegood house was that the garden was an absolute mess. It was nothing at all like their neat ordered rows of vegetables and herbs and flowers. And then the man who met them at the door was almost as disorderly. His white blond hair was frizzed out at odd angles, and the buttons on his robe were mis-matched. Moira frowned at him. So this was a Ravenclaw. The little girl wasn't sure she liked them much. She tried to see beyond him into the house. She was still curious to see this daughter of his. But it looked as if the inside of the house was in as much disarray as the outside. There were papers and books everywhere and a machine that was making an awful noise and seemed to be spitting out even more papers into the air.

"Good Morning, Good Morning," said Mr. Lovegood. He ran a hand over his mop of hair and then reached out to shake Mrs. Diggory's. "Glad to see you found the place." He looked them all over and didn't say any more. Moira began to wonder if they would stand all day on his front steps that dreadfully needed a good sweeping.

Then Mrs. Diggory cleared her throat and broke the silence. "We are very sorry about your loss Mr. Lovegood."

"Yes, well. It is sad. Very sad. No one should have to lay to rest their best friend, mother of their child..." His voice faded away again and he seemed to be in an altogether different place. His hand went reflexively to a medallion he wore around his neck on a cord. It was a triangle with a circle inside and a line running down the middle and Mr. Lovegood seemed intent on tracing the circle around and around with his thumb as if it might come alive in his hand.

Mrs. Diggory didn't seem to like the symbol very much. At the sight of it she gave a little gasp and took a step back.

Mr. Lovegood suddenly realized what he was doing and dropped the medallion back down the front of his robes looking flustered.

Mrs. Diggory spoke a bit more crisply. "Our agreement was that you would tutor the children and I would do a bit of work around the garden?"

"Ah, yes, that was it exactly. I don't have much time for the outdoors now that i've brought the magazine home and i'm looking after Luna by myself. She may come and join you in the garden if she doesn't want to sit with your children while they study. But then she is a studious little one and we've been rather inseparable since, well, since there was only the two of us." He seemed to fade off again into some distant memory.

Mrs. Diggory spoke again to get him to return to the present. "Well, this is Cedric, my oldest and this is Moira."

"Very pleasant to meet you both." He shook both of their hands in turn and then for the first time he smiled. He didn't look quite so wild with that smile, more warm and welcoming and Moira suddenly didn't mind the idea of him teaching she and her brother quite so much.

Mr. Lovegood seemed to hear something then and he turned around to look back into the house, although how he could hear anything over that machine knocking and grinding Moira wasn't sure. When he turned back around to face them he ushered to his side a very small girl with long hair the same white blond color of her father's. She had a bemused smile on her face.

"This is my Luna."

She didn't look old enough to be able to form full sentences but she raised her tiny hand to shake their's in a very adult fashion. "How nice to meet you both." Her voice was high pitched and very sweet like a little bird. Moira wasn't sure quite what to think of her only that this little whisp of a girl was probably not going to want to come out and practice Quidditch with she and Ced.

Moira looked up at her brother then and Cedric looked even more unsure then she herself felt.

"Well come along in and we'll find a place to work on your studies." He stood back from the doorway and motioned for the children to enter.

Moira hesitantly stepped into the loud cluttered room, wincing slightly at the noise.

Mr. Lovegood seemed to notice this and hurried over to the machine yelling over it's noise. "I'll just pause the printing for a bit so we can get started." Once it was turned off the silence seemed to press on Moira's ears even more than the rattling and whirring that had seemed so deafening a moment before.

Cedric also entered the house now, staying close to his sister and trying not to step on any of the papers that were littering the floor.

Mr. Lovegood rushed over to a table so covered with papers and books that Moira had not known it was there until the gentleman began to shift arm loads of the debris to another pile. Chairs also had to be emptied of stacks of papers before they could be dragged over to the makeshift study station. He seated each of the three children in a chair and then sighed. "There I think we're ready to begin."

Mrs. Diggory still waiting at the door cleared her throat. "If you don't need me anymore here I'll go ahead and get started on the garden?"

"Oh Yes," Mr. Lovegood slapped his forehead remembering that she was there. "Yes. I believe there are tools in the shed. I'm not much of a gardener myself. My wife was rather fond of …" he began to trail off again but caught himself and began again. "I'm afraid i've rather let it all go to seed, but everything you need should be there."

Mrs. Diggory smiled. "I'm sure i'll be able to find everything that I need. And if I can't I can bring some of my own tools from home when we come again tomorrow."

"We're coming back again tomorrow!" Cedric shouted, alarmed, and stood up from his chair looking as if he were ready to run for the door.

"Unless you think you can learn it all in one day." Mr. Lovegood laughed.

Mrs. Diggory stepped carefully into the room and gave her son a little squeeze about the shoulders. "Don't worry, Love. I'll be right out side if you need me but i'm sure you'll be having too much fun in here learning to even notice i'm gone."

With another smile and a quick squeeze of her daughter's hand, Mrs. Diggory made her exit leaving her children with the strange man who was to be their tutor and his equally strange daughter who stared at them expectantly with her too big eyes. Moira thought her mother had looked a little bit relieved to be leaving the cluttered house and heading back outdoors. Moira didn't blame her her mother a bit. She wished that she could spend all day out doors also.

"Well now, where should we begin?" Mr. Lovegood's words brought Moira's gaze back inside from the view of the moor outside the window. "Do either of you know how to read?"

Moira shook her head but Cedric spoke up. Maybe he felt as if he had to, being the big brother and all. "We know our letters and numbers but not how to put them all together."

"That is just what we will do then." Mr. Lovegood rubbed his hands together and smiled ready to begin.


End file.
